The Nature of Rhodos

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Parks The Nature of Rhodos PACIFIC OCEAN Victoria Vancouver CALIFORNIA The Enchanted Forest Pacific rhododendrons grow in an enchanted forest of deep shade, thickly carpeted with moss. Here nutrients are few but many plants, like the rhododendron and huckleberries, have a strategy to survive in these less than ideal conditions. Each forms a strong partnership with a fungus. The fungus exchanges scarce minerals for sugar that the plant makes from water, carbon dioxide and sunlight. ECTOTROPHIC MYCORRHIZA Root Fungal threads Also living here are some very unusual plants such as the ghostly Indian pipe and pinesap. These plants have no green leaves to make their own food. They steal all of their nourishment including sugar, from the mat of fungi in the soil. The fungi, in turn, gets sugars from decomposing organic matter or from a nearby tree! Where are all the others? RHODENDRON RANGE The Pacific rhododendrons found at Rhododendron Flats and in the nearby Skagit Valley Provincial Park are an isolated population at the northern extent of their range. The nearest populations occur south of Mount Rainier and on the Olympic Peninsula. Two small isolated populations are also found on Vancouver Island near Nanaimo and Shawnigan Lake. Why are the rhododendrons here? Studies have revealed that the Skagit Valley rhododendrons are very similar genetically to populations in Washington state. This indicates that the Skagit population has only recently been isolated. Are they a relic of a population that was once much more widely distributed or has their seed somehow found its way here from the southern populations? HOPE TOWING LTD [UNVERIFIABLE: 2 short fragments elsewhere on this sign could not be corroborated and are not shown]

Machine-transcribed from photo · not yet human-verified · may be incomplete